Instrumentation, display, and alerting systems for vehicles are generally known. Such systems are particularly important for safe operation of vehicles such as aircraft, spacecraft, and watercraft. In an aircraft context, for example, pilots must maintain situational awareness of the environment both inside and outside the cockpit. External situational awareness is important for purposes of identifying neighboring aircraft traffic, visually identifying landmarks, locating airports, determining weather patterns, and the like. Situational awareness inside the cockpit is also important for purposes of identifying and reading displays, instrumentation, alerts, and the like.
Visually locating neighboring aircraft in flight can be challenging due to the cluttered ground background, sunlight or other lighting conditions, weather, and the large three-dimensional viewspace that is typically involved. Challenges for locating ground-based landmarks such as airports are similar, especially when the pilot is operating in new or unfamiliar areas. Likewise, it may be difficult for a pilot to quickly and easily identify and view a display element, alert message, indicator light, or other element inside the cockpit that requires attention. Visually identifying a specific item within an aircraft cockpit can be particularly challenging when the cockpit contains a large amount of instrumentation, controls, switches, displays, and indicator lights.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an effective, accurate, and practical solution to assist an operator or occupant of a vehicle (such as an aircraft) in visually finding and identifying objects that may be inside the vehicle or outside the vehicle. In addition, it is desirable to have a system onboard a vehicle that alerts an occupant of the vehicle when necessary to direct the attention of the occupant to a visual target. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.